The Implications of Google Inc (GOOG)’s Foray in Domain Registration: PCMag.com’s Sascha Segan

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is getting into the domain registration business, and this could impact many companies, especially privately held GoDaddy. CNBC’s Julia Boorstin talked with PCMag.com Lead Analyst Sascha Segan today, and discussed the main implications of this foray.

GoDaddy is the dominant player in the domain registration arena, but this could change with Google’s incursion in the field. While some think it might be too late for the company to get into the game, Mr. Segan explained:

“Google is just dipping their toes into the water here. Their new domain registration service is a closed Beta at the moment, it is invite only, so clearly they are just testing the market and seeing, I think, especially if it could make a good value add to their Google Apps platform or their other cloud services.”

However, this must not be interpreted as an attempt to muscle GoDaddy out, Mr. Segan continued, but as a valuable addition to other online services.

When thinking about Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s wider business strategy, this foray could be interpreted as a way of incentivizing the loyalty of businesses and web developers amidst an environment of increasing competition with other Internet behemoths like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), amongst others. The domain registration service is just “another piece of the puzzle,” one more service to help attract customers for other services like its cloud-based app suite, information management suite, or web services (hosting websites), Mr. Segan assured.

Although this strategy does point towards keeping customers away from Amazon.com, Microsoft and other competitors, it is still too soon to determine how will this affect GoDaddy, the leading player in the space.

“If Google really opens this up, they are really good at doing web services. So it is probably going to be a smooth experience, and everybody hates GoDaddy. GoDaddy has a lousy consumer profile, so the market is certainly ripe for a company with any kind of more positive approach or consumer view to take over some of that space,” Segan explained.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned.